The back door of the car opened, and Isabella stopped. “Get in.” The voice was male. It was cold, and she could tell by his tone that he wasn’t asking.
Her heart kicked hard behind her ribs. “No.” The word left her before she could second-guess it.
A figure shifted inside the car, with broad shoulders and a shadowed face. “You don’t have a choice.”
Wrong—she always had a choice. Even if it was a bad one. Isabella took a slow step back, her eyes flicking toward the club behind her. She knew that it was too far away for her to try to make a run for it. If she ran, they’d catch her before she made it five steps—especially in her heels.
“You’re making a mistake,” she said, lifting her chin.
A quiet chuckle came from inside the car. “No, sweetheart. You’re the one who made the mistake already.” The man started to step out of the car, and then a voice shouted in the darkness.
“Back away from her.” The command cut through the air like a blade, and everything went still. Isabella didn’t turn right away, but she didn’t have to. She knew that voice and knew that it belonged to her future husband—Luca.
The man by the car paused, and then slowly straightened, turning toward the source of the voice. “This doesn’t concern you.” She had a feeling that the guy was about to find out that was a complete lie.
Luca stepped into view, his movements unhurried and controlled, but there was nothing casual about him. Power rolled off him in waves, quiet and absolute. He looked dangerous—deadly even, and focused, very focused.
“It concerns me,” Luca said evenly, “because she’s mine.” The words hit her harder than they should have. Isabella’s breath caught—just for a second. She wanted to remind Luca that she hadn’t agreed to any of this—the marriage or his possessive nature that made him think that she was his, but this wasn’t the time or place.
The man by the car gave a humorless smile. “Funny. That’s not what I heard.” Luca didn’t react. He didn’t blink, and he didn’t move, but something in the air shifted—tightened like a wire about to snap.
“What you heard,” Luca said, voice dropping lower, “doesn’t matter.” He stared them down, and Isabella felt as though she was holding her breath.
“Get in my car,” the man hissed. He had the kind of tone that didn’t leave room for negotiation. The man hesitated. And that hesitation seemed to be all Luca needed. He took one step forward—just one, but it was enough. Because suddenly, thebalance of power wasn’t even a close fight. The man’s expression tightened. He glanced once at Isabella, then back at Luca—as though calculating his next move. Then, slowly, he stepped back, got into the car, shut the door, and the vehicle pulled away without another word.
Silence followed, and Isabella finally turned to find Luca closer than she expected him to be. He was close enough that she could see the tension in his jaw and the way his eyes tracked her like she was both a problem and something far more complicated.
“Tell me that you weren’t going to get in the car,” he said.
“No,” she breathed.
His gaze sharpened slightly. “Good.”
“But I’m not sure that I had much of a say in the matter.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t need your help,” she lied. They both knew that she was lying. She could tell by the smirk on his face that he didn’t believe her.
Luca’s mouth curved faintly—not quite a smile. “Yeah,” he said. “You did.”
Her temper flared. “I had it handled.” That was another lie.
“You were about to get dragged into a car by men who don’t answer to me,” he said flatly. “That’s not ‘handling the situation.’ That’s becoming part of a bigger problem.”
“I wasn’t afraid of them.” She insisted. She had been around men like them her whole life, and she had learned how to deal with them, too. Maybe it would have taken her some time, but she would have figured a way out of that mess because she always did.
“I know,” he whispered. That stopped her, because there was no mockery in his voice, and no disbelief. Just certainty, and somehow, that was worse.
Luca took another step closer, his presence crowding hers without actually touching her. “That’s why you’re dangerous,” he added quietly.
Her heart kicked harder in her chest. “I’m not the dangerous one here,” she shot back.
His eyes darkened. “No,” he agreed. “You’re just the one standing in the middle of it, not willing to back down.” The truth of that hit harder than anything else he’d said tonight.
Isabella swallowed, forcing her spine straighter. “Who were they?”
Luca didn’t answer right away. “You don’t need to know.”
“I do if they were trying to kidnap me,” she snapped.
His expression hardened. “They won’t try that again.”
